SUNBURY – Several weeks after the public release of the Sunbury police department investigation report, questions remain. Former city council member John Shipman was a guest on WKOK’s On The Mark and says text messages obtained by the city suggest that Officer Scott Hause was with Jessica Troup while on duty, “On one day the accuser said that they met, there are 64 texts between the two until about eight minutes after ten. Then there’s a forty minute break and then the texts resume later. Now this is all fact, I’m not telling you anything that’s fiction and this is not my opinion.”
Shipman says the gap lines up with the time Troup claims she was with Hause while he was on duty, but that evidence is circumstantial. Hause denies charges that he met with Troup to have sex while on duty.
Additionally, Shipman says the data usage on Hause’s city-issued iPad exceeded 400,000 gigabytes per month. Troup reported that Hause sent her suggestive videos and photos which could account for the increase in data usage, but again, this is circumstantial.
Many members of the public have asked why the investigation is important. Shipman says what people do on their own time is their business, “But when somebody does this on city time, that’s a different thing. And, aside from that, as part of the investigation, the officer admitted that they met frequently and corresponded frequently while he was on duty, but that they just didn’t have sex while he was on duty.”
Officer Hause was suspended for three weeks and Sunbury mayor David Persing has indicated that Hause will not face further disciplinary action in the matter.
